The amount of ink in a cap at the time of end of printing initiated by a print command is estimated, and it is determined whether an open suction action is to be performed based on the estimated post-printing ink amount to prevent spillover of the ink and reduce downtime due to the open suction action.

A waste liquid collection apparatus includes a waste liquid tray, a collection tank, a collection pump, and a circulation pump. The waste liquid tray includes a waste liquid receiving surface inclined downward to receive a waste liquid discharged from a head unit and allow the waste liquid to flow from an upper end to a lower end of the waste liquid receiving surface, and a waste liquid discharge part that is disposed adjacent to the lower end of the waste liquid receiving surface to discharge the waste liquid. The collection pump feeds a part of the waste liquid discharged from the waste liquid discharge part to the collection tank. The circulation pump returns another part of the waste liquid discharged from the waste liquid discharge part to the upper end of the waste liquid receiving surface to circulate the other part of the waste liquid.

An image forming apparatus for forming an image with a coloring material on a recording medium includes a region specifier that specifies a region that becomes a margin when the image is formed on the recording medium; and a pattern image generator that generates image data of a pattern image to be formed in the region based on a size of the region and a type of the coloring material.

Disclosed is a substrate treating apparatus. The substrate treating apparatus may include a stage including an accommodation area, onto or from which a substrate is loaded or unloaded, and a treatment area, in which the substrate is treated, a liquid discharge head that supplies a treatment liquid to the substrate, and a liquid receiving part that receives the treatment liquid pre-discharged by the liquid discharge head in the treatment area.

The printing apparatus (liquid discharging apparatus) is provided with a support section that supports a medium, a discharge section that discharges ink on the medium supported on the support section, and a transport unit that transports the medium in a transport direction. The support section includes a support structure including a liquid permeable portion that supports the medium and allows ink to pass therethrough, and a liquid holding portion that holds ink that has passed through the liquid permeable portion.

An image forming apparatus includes a drawing data creating unit and a controller. The drawing data creating unit creates drawing data from a print job. The controller automatically sets at least one of a first dropping method of performing discharge in a drawing area and a second dropping method of performing the discharge outside the drawing area as a preliminary discharge method in accordance with a type of component elements of the created drawing data, and performs preliminary discharge in accordance with the set preliminary discharge method.

An ink-jet printer includes a conveyor, a carriage, a recording head, an ink receiver, a command receiver, and a controller. The controller executes: determining an ink amount that the recording head should discharge to the ink receiver; executing a flushing process that moves the carriage to an area facing the ink receiver and causes each of a plurality of nozzles to discharge ink of the determined ink amount; and based on the flushing process having finished, executing a recording process. The controller, based on the determined ink amount being less than a first threshold value, causes the recording head to discharge ink of the determined ink amount in a times of the flushing processes, and based on the determined ink amount being the first threshold value or more, causes the recording head to discharge ink of the determined ink amount dispersed in β(β>α) times of the flushing processes.

An ink-jet printer including a conveyor, a carriage, a recording head, a power supply, an ink receiver, a command receiver, and a controller, is provided. The controller executes the steps of: determining a discharge ink amount that should be discharged to the ink receiver; raising a drive voltage to a first voltage when the discharge ink amount is less than a first threshold value, and raising the drive voltage to a second voltage when the discharge ink amount is the first threshold value or more; performing a flushing process; based on the flushing process after having raised the drive voltage to the second voltage having finished in the case of having raised the drive voltage to the second voltage, stepping down the drive voltage from the second voltage to the first voltage; and based on the flushing process having finished and on the drive voltage being the first voltage, performing a printing process.

An aqueous ink set for ink jet including a combination of a first ink and a second ink. The first ink includes a self-dispersible pigment to a particle surface of which a functional group that includes a phosphonic acid group is bonded, wherein the redispersion viscosity of the first ink is 5 mPa.Math.s or less. The second ink includes an anionic dye, a lithium ion, and a sodium ion, wherein the total concentration of the lithium ion and the sodium ion in the second ink is 0.050 mol/L or more, and the proportion of the concentration of the lithium ion in the total concentration of the lithium ion and the sodium ion in the second ink is 45% or more to 85% or less.

A printing apparatus is provided with a print head having at least a first type nozzles and a second type nozzles positioned on a first direction side with respect to the first type of nozzles and a controller. The controller is configured to perform a first ejection control with performing a main scanning. The first ejection control includes a control of performing flushing when the print head is in a first state where the second type of nozzles are located at a position corresponding to an ink receiver and the first type of nozzles are located at a position corresponding to the medium range, and a control of causing the first type nozzles to eject the ink toward the printing medium during a period where the ink is ejected from the second type of nozzles toward the ink receiver when the print head is in the first state.